Making Comics Master Link List!

Making Comics Master Link List!

Hey guys, I’m getting a lot of asks about the same things, mostly questions about how to make comics, how to “break into comics” (haha, oh dear), working with publishers, that kind of thing. I’ve done some blogging on many of the subjects, so instead of repeatedly replying in private with links to those posts, I’m going to do a master post thingie with links to all my blogging about how I work. Hopefully some of you will find some helpful nuggets in there! I remember when I first started trying to transition into making comics for a living, and there wasn’t much information about that online. I spent a lot of time wailing about it on a locked livejournal. XD But anyway, I hope my blogs help a wee bit.

Disclaimer: these blog posts are all based on my own personal experiences as a cartoonist, and the advice therein might not work for everyone. The most awesome thing about comics is that there is no one way to make them, nor is there one direct route into becoming a full-time cartoonist. The more pro cartoonists I meet, the more it drives home how different our methods and origin stories are. 

Anyway, here you are! (With all of these, scroll past the placeholder image at the top of the post.)

1) How I make my comics, start to finish (traditional penciling)

1A) How I make my comics start to finish, now with digital penciling!

2) Finding the art tools that are right for you.

3) Working with collaborators.

4) Acting in comics. 

5) The financial reality of a full time cartoonist. 

6) Making a successful graphic novel pitch. 

7) Adapting a prose novel to comics, part 1.

8) Adapting a prose novel to comics, part 2.

9) Very simple tips for drawing a comic that will be published.

10) Working with editors from a cartoonist’s perspective.

10) b) Working with editors from an editor’s perspective (by my First Second editor, Calista Brill).

11) On “Drawing Styles.”

12) Dealing with discouragement (this is probably the most popular thing I’ve ever written XD).

13) On Comic Conventions. 

14) On Being a Pro and Finishing that Comic When You Don’t Want To

15) How I Write My Comics

Okay, I think that’s it! Whew! The remainder of the Friends With Boys blogging archive is here. It has some other bloggings that aren’t advice-related (mostly ramblings about comics I like), if you’re interested. If you have any other comic-related subjects you’d like me to blog about, feel free to drop a suggestion in the ask box.

I hope this was helpful. Share and enjoy! 

Updated 08/12/15

Good for beginners and a nice refresher

HIIRAREFS: Basic and Intermidiate guide to colouring in

What better day to end the year then with a basic guide to colouring- This is for beginners or intermediate artists. Colouring is a big part to an art piece, whether you decide to use colours or not, that’s up to you, but for the most part, having some knowledge on appliance of colour will really help you out!

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ARTISTS WITH AN INSPIRING KNOWLEDGE OF COLOUR APPLICATION! Please take the time to have a look at other artists work so that you ca research and get inspired!

Gullacass: Uses brights, dulls and pastels to create brilliant guro, pop and macabre pieces| DA + TUMBLR

TinyCalcium: Old friend of mine who explores brights and mustard colours and places them as a foundation for their work | TUMBLR

BeastPop: Talented with opposing and Triwheel colours. Outstanding cell-shading, and knows how to flexibly bend colour form to their will in popart. | DA

H0stel: Fantastic composition of light direction and applies colour to bodies based on ambient occlusion. | TUMBLR

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COLOUR SLANG: I use some strange slang to express colour types and shades as well as groups. Although they may not be canonically correct, I will use these terms to describe colour palates to the best of my ability! Analogous: Colours that are near or adjacent to each other on the colour wheel, EG: Red and Orange

Oppositional/complimentary: Colours that are opposed or opposite from each other on the colour wheel, EG: Cherry and Green

Triadic: Colours that form a triangle on the Colour wheel, EG: Cyan, Magenta and Yellow. These three colours when mixed together will make black.

Arrowtype/Quadcolour: Four colours, that generally form an arrow shape on the colour wheel.

Tetradic: Colours that form a rectangle or square in the colour wheel

Neons: The very brightest you can get a colour, be careful where you use them as they can look ugly together at the most. Try to use neons when you are adding bright glowing objects to your piece. Neons are great for highlights.

Brights: Slightly washed Neons. Appropriate if you have characters that are colourful.

Washed: Very washed brights with a hint of grey. These are also useful for colourful characters.

Pastels: Colour with white in them to make them seem light.

Baby Pastel: Pastel with even more white in them, good for subtle highlights.

Darks: Colour with black added to them. Used mostly for lineart.

Mustards: Colours with dark grey added to them

Earthen: Colours with brown added to them

Warm and Cool colours: Warm colours are colours that range fromMagenta to Yellow. Cool ones range from Lime to Fuchsia.

Straight tones: A greyscale palate. or a straight scale of one colour from black to it’s neon form.

Warm and cool tones: Warm tones are a greyscale mixed with warm colours and cool tones are greyscale mixed with cool colours.

Skintones: Warm washed or pastel colours generally used to colour in skin, but they don’t have to be warm at all! ( I will not show you a palate for this however)

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WHAT TO AVOID WHEN COLOURING: beginner artists, tend to go ahead and start by colouring their line art with neon and mustard colours. Neons are not necessarily good for base colours unless the character has a glow.

I often see lazy attempts to shade, often a beginner artist with use an airbrush and use black and white to shade and highlight their piece. This is not very effective, and I’m sorry to say… It’s kind of gross as well. Try to avoid being lazy. If you have a piece that has bold black lines, avoid using soft shading and airbrushing at this point of time.

Black and white isn’t always the best option when colouring in your piece, but it also depends on the style you are trying to convey. If you plan on only using straight tones to colour in a piece, black and white is good.

A GOOD BASIC WAY TO COLOUR For this basic tutorial I will show you a nice way to colour in a piece with bold lines. I will be using Minty’s Classic character as an example.

Begin with using brights that have been washed down a little and washed skin tones if your character is human based. Avoid using neons or mustards if you are able. If there is white on the character, such as the white on an eyeball or the teeth, consider using baby pastels. For Minty’s eyeballs I have used a baby pastel blue. I have chosen to use a darker and more washed version for her Irises.

With you foundation colours placed down, use a washed warm colour for the skin tone, such as a salmon. If the character’s hair or fur is warm coloured, use a pink or red orange to shade that as well. Use the cell shading technique. This may mean you will have to erase some of your shading so be sure to do this on another layer. For your baby pastels, you can use a regular pastel to shade it. For Minty’s eyes I have used pastel blue and lowered the opacity by a little.

For Highlights, I have chosen to use baby pastel yellow. I wanted the piece to be warm.

Applying a light airbrush over the top of the piece makes it feel a little softer. I have also applied the airbrush over the initial borders to create colour bleed, giving a very subtle reflective approach.

Colouring your line art layer, particularly if you have bold lines, can really make a piece look more interesting! I like to leave the overall outline black. You can gradient and bleed colour in your line art as well

Light tracing is a technique lots of artist’s use, where they run a sharp line of highlight next to line art to divide borders.

This looks a lot nicer than the black and white shading, doesn’t it!? __________________________________________

This is a very very simple guide to applying colour to your piece! If This helped, please reblog and share this guide around!

If you have any questions or feedback, don’t be afraid to send me a message!

Inktober day 2, maybe

Day 13 "Inner Demons" - this one ended up really sketchy, I wish it were a planned drawing, because I really like the concept. It needs color to look right, I think. It's a body holding a head with the spinal cord attached. It's like my OC person, based off of a meditation session with some spirits.

Support young artists who aren’t very good at drawing yet but are still brave enough to post what they made

Support new artists who want to improve and are slowly struggling to get better

Support artists who are trying things outside of their comfort zone and ending up with outcomes that are mediocre compared to their usual work

Support artists who make 30000 OCs simply because they love designing characters

Support artists who are overly judgmental of their creations

Support artists who are positive about their creations

Support artists

If a critique is requested, be honest… but for the love of all things good and holy do not degrade, bully, or act condescending toward an artist just because their picture doesn’t match up to your standard of quality.

self portrait. I wanted an avatar/icon that was me. and preferrably not Snake. Not that I dislike Snake.